MANILA, Philippines - A salvage firm is on its way to Cebu to turn over a total of 199 bodies recovered from the capsized MV Princess of the Stars to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for identification.

Radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported Tuesday that Harbor Star will formally turn over the bodies to the NBI Cebu, which in turn will take DNA samples from them.

Transportation Undersecretary Elena Bautista, who heads a task force handling the tragedy, will personally witness the turnover, the report said.

On the other hand, Coast Guard commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said they will wait for the report of Harbor Star to see if it will try to retrieve more bodies.

He said more than 500 passengers believed trapped in the vessel are still missing.

The MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon last June at the height of Typhoon Frank.

I think this would be a good news for all the relatives of the passenger that are still missing because they can send their relatives in peace and also good for the people living in Romblon because if the search and rescue operation will be done then they can continue with their life. As we all know the common livelihood in the people their are fishing and they rely on that but because of the tragedy they can't continue with their wwork because few people these days eat fish because they are afraid that the fish eat the dead body. And there are also harmful chemicals in that ferry and luckily it has been recovered.